Cooks/Engineers. Engineers work with the materials available. Make the recipe exactly as noted. Keep a notebook handy. Record brand or substitution. Cream cheese comes in many variations. Eggs are fresh and old. Oven performances vary. Ambient room temperatures as well as elevations are different. Question? Is cooking an art or a science? If you have poor results try again, vary only one item at a time. Re-read the recipe.

My sister in law went to Culinary School (CIA in California) and her instructor said: cooking (on top of the stove) is art, while baking (in the oven) is science. They were doing breads with yeast an all sorts of gooies at the time.
I am a culinary scientist in the mold of Alton Brown. While I *never* share my cheesecake recipes, I will, however, share cooking advice.
First off, the cardinal sin of cheesecakes is a cracked cheesecake. The reason people put pie filling or whipped cream on top is often to hide the cracks.
The number one cause of cracking is air inside the cheesecake escaping and cracking the outside. So we need to prevent adding air to the batter, and slowing the formation of a "skin" on the outside of the cheesecake.
After 13 years and likely over 100 cheesecakes here's the best tricks for avoiding cracking.
Bring EVERYTHING to room temperature before you start (cream cheese, eggs, butter if you use it.)
Beat the cream cheese and sugar til its smooth, add vanilla if needed and beat again, but don't overbeat.
Add eggs ONE AT A TIME and only beat until there's no "obvious" egg before you add the next egg. Once the eggs are in you want to minimize any beating. Overbeating forces air into the batter which will crack it trying to escape later.
If you are adding any flavors into the batter (chocolate, lemon, lime, etc) now is the time, but beat as little as possible.
Before pouring into the crust, bang the bowl of batter on the counter some to release any bubbles "stuck" in the batter.
While preheating the oven, place a pyrex dish full of water on the shelf below where the cheesecake will be. This will heat up and keep the oven moist, so the surfact of the cheesecake won't dry and crack while baking.
While baking, watch thru the door but avoid opening the door. This willthrow off your time and could potentially cause small cracks to form large cracks.
Last and most important is to cool the cheesecake incredibly slowly. Stop early when there's a half dolloar size of apparently "uncooked" cheesecake in the middle. This will cook via "push" (carry over heat) When your tie is up, turn off the oven, open the door slightly but leave the cheesecake in the oven for 10-20 minutes. Then move it to the counter, keeping it in the springform pan. Cover with a clean dry dishtowel to keep some of the steam in but allow it to cool. Lastly, when it is cool enough to pick up and move by hand, you can move it to the fridge, still covered with a dish towel. After a few hours, you can safely run a knife around the inside of the springform pan and then release it, but don't remove it.
Let the cheesecake chill in the fridge at least overnight.
I know this sounds WAY over the top, but I assure you it's worth the effort. And once you get used to the process it's not really "work." All the extra time spent waiting gives time for cleaning up. (I make heavy use of Mise en place, so I routinely have 6 or 8 bowls that need to be washed after I make a cheesecake.)

Finally, for the muffin cheesecakes, I have used a banana cheesecake batter before and placed oreo cookies in the bottom of my muffin tins. The crust is a bit of a surprise when you bit into the cheesecake and are suddenly met by the cookie. I can only assume most any round sandwich cookie would also work, and thus the variety and creativity of cooking kick in.

Oh boy! I see that you have an exact same kitchenaid mixer as mine!! Just some questions though, does your kitchenaid 'slide' all over the kitchen counter when you turn it on(ie when mixing dough) - and you have to stand there and hold it down to stop it from falling over the edge.... also how do you make you mixer to stay on a 'low-stir speed' i found that for mine, the stir speed is fast already....nothing like stirring!! thanks for answering my questions

Oh boy! I see that you have an exact same kitchenaid mixer as mine!! Just some questions though, does your kitchenaid 'slide' all over the kitchen counter when you turn it on(ie when mixing dough) - and you have to stand there and hold it down to stop it from falling over the edge.... also how do you make you mixer to stay on a 'low-stir speed' i found that for mine, the stir speed is fast already....nothing like stirring!! thanks for answering my questions

No, my kitchenaid mixer is heavy enough that it doesn't move on the counter at all when it's on. The rubber feet help keep it in place as well. What surface is your kitchen counter and does your kitchenaid mixer feel really heavy (it should)? If it's a lack of friction with your counter, I would suggest putting down a sheet of shelf liner.

Working from memory, stir speed is about one major revolution per second. It doesn't go much slower than that - it's slow enough that adding ingredients usually doesn't splatter, but if it looks like it might, then just shut off the machine to add ingredients. Once the ingredients are in the bowl, it's unlikely that anything will splash out on stir speed.

Oh thanks so much for replying, yes my kitchenaid is REALLY heavy lol! which is why it is a surprise to me that it rotates/moves when you mix something with it! (mine's a 5 quart one by the way) and also, the surface of my kitchen bench is like "rough" not smooth...so wouldn't that create greater friction ...hrmm correct me if i'm wrong! Also, yes my slow stir started off like slow...ie it goes one rev per second... then it increases it's speed to very fast for some reason ... speed two for me is VERY fast .... i haven't known anyone who owns a kitchenaid around me so I can't check with someone else ...damn!

I have a litle boy who is not a big fan of cake, so these cheesecake cupcakes fit the bill perfect for him. He wants his friends, who are coming to his party, to feel like they are getting a "real" cupcake, so my question is, can you top these with a nice swiss meringue buttercream?

I have a litle boy who is not a big fan of cake, so these cheesecake cupcakes fit the bill perfect for him. He wants his friends, who are coming to his party, to feel like they are getting a "real" cupcake, so my question is, can you top these with a nice swiss meringue buttercream?

Sounds like it would work, but these are quite thin/flat when compared to a cupcake.

I am going to make some of these for a friends birthday. Chocolate cheesecake. I wanted to put a swirly topping. Icing is what I was thinking but any certain type anyone recommends? I was going to just use chocolate. He is a chocolate lover and so I was going to do it all in chocolate.
Any suggestions.
Thanks

Does anyone have high-altitude bake time for these? I added ten minutes, which left me with no jiggle but no browning at the edges, either, and I don't know if they got hot enough to destroy any bacteria in the eggs.

Not that this will stop me from eating them, of course. I'm just saying.

I used the recipe as someone suggested and made the cheesecake chocolate and I did not add oranges or anything but I did swirl some chocolate icing on top and it was a huge hit. People went crazy for them. The birthday I gave them for was a success I found letting the batter sit for half hour before baking was a good idea.
Thanks for a wonderful recipe.

I like to make these with an Oreo crust. The filling provides a bit of a moisture barrier, so while the top cookie gets a bit soggy (like the nilla wafers), the bottom cookie stays nice and crispy even after a few days in the fridge. I few handfuls of mini-chocolate chips in the batter complete the event (regular chips are too big, I think, for the little cupcakes).

Hi, just discovered this site and tried the cheesescake cupcakes. My question was even though I have never noticed my oven temperature being off before... I had to cook thm 25 minutes as opposed to the directions saying 15. They didn't seem done prior to that... Any suggestions/thoughts?